I Can Make You A Man
by TriplePirouette
Summary: Just after their engagement, Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter get lost on their way to share the good news with Doctor Erskine. They seek shelter in the house of Howard Stark, their former friend and reclusive millionaire who just happens to be throwing a party… Rocky Horror Picture Show AU


Title: I Can Make You a Man

By: TriplePirouette/3Pirouette

Spoilers: General MCU/RHPS

Disclaimer: They're not mine.

Distribution: AO3. Anyone else please ask first :)

Summary: Just after their engagement, Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter get lost on their way to share the good news with Doctor Erskine. They seek shelter in the house of Howard Stark, their former friend and reclusive millionaire who just happens to be throwing a party… Rocky Horror Picture Show AU

Feedback PLEASE at:triplepirouettephile Or just hit the little button there.

AN: This was born one day early November 2015 when I was listening to the RHPS soundtrack on the way to work. I can Make You a Man came on and all of a sudden all I could see was Cap and Howard and I had wondered if anyone had ficc'd it. Guess it's up to me. Characterizations are a blend of the Marvel personalities and some traits of their Rocky Horror counterparts. Being unfamiliar with either Captain America or Rocky Horror will make this story difficult to understand, please keep that in mind. The end is significantly different from the RHPS canon, and there is some kind of vague plot that makes it all make sense. I hope you enjoy!

The happy couple sped away in their car as the crowd dispersed. Peggy Carter meandered on the edge of the path, her eyes on the horizon where the car was slowly disappearing from view. The small cemetery next to the chapel made her uneasy. She wasn't used to the run down charm that her friend, the new Mrs. Ralph Hapschatt, found so comforting. She liked the damp tents of the field and the cement walls of the bases. The war was over, but the military was still home.

"Peggy?"

She turned and smiled fondly at the small man standing at the base of the church. He'd always looked so small in the bases, being bounced around from office to office, "doing his part" the best he could by helping with decrypting and coding in between asthma attacks. She'd found him charming, at first, but it didn't take Peggy Carter long to fall in love with the 98 pound, asthmatic Steve Rogers.

"Just… lost in thought, Steve." She looked down and grasped her purse tighter as she walked back to him, her heels clicking tightly on the cement bricks below her.

He held out his hand and looked up at her when she reached him. His eyes always held a little wonder, weather it was at her or the world around them. She let her hand tangle in his, meeting his gaze. "Good things, I hope," he asked, a little wheeze in his voice from the fresh air, flowers, and the dust in the old church.

Behind him through the doors she could see the pastor and his unsettling assistants rearranging flowers, setting the small space up for what looked to be a funeral. It gave her a chill, a feeling of foreboding that slid down her spine. She looked back at Steve, however, and felt her heart calm. They'd made it through the war; she knew there wasn't anything they couldn't make it through, even this rickety old town. "Just… thinking about this small town."

He swung her hand and led her forward, away from the musty smell of the church and towards the small field where they were parked. "Not really home anymore, is it?" he asked cautiously. Her surprised look was all he needed to continue. "I could tell, the way you greeted everyone. They way you talked with your mom at dinner last night. Happened to me, too, last time I went back to Brooklyn to see Bucky. The war did it- we live different lives now. Going back- it isn't that easy."

She sighed. It was what she loved about him- he could read her like a book, could see right to the core of her without a single word crossing her lips. "It just…" Peggy sighed and squeezed his hand tighter as they neared the car. She turned to him, grabbing his other hand. "It's not a base, and it's not with you." She chuckled at the town's welcome billboard just over his shoulder. "Home of Happiness… Denton was home for so long, then I found out there was so much more out there."

Steve cleared his throat, looking at the ground, all of a sudden nervous. "Peg, I- I know I'm not as handsome as Ralph, or as swell or strong as a lot of the guys on the base, but…"

Her heart started to beat harder in her chest. Peggy almost didn't want to breathe. "But…"

"But from the moment I met you, all I've ever wanted to be was good enough for you to love, to be able to protect you. Run the longest road for you, swim the deepest river, a million things I know that physically I might never be able to do, but I want to try. I want to be the best man I can be for you. I'm a fool for you, Peggy. Fell head over heels from the first day we met. All I can see when I think about my future is you." Steve was almost rambling as his hands shook lightly in hers, but he held her gaze, steady and earnest.

Her eyes were wide as she watched him reach into his suit pocket, the bones in his hand peaking through the pale skin, his hand twitching with a nervous tremor. Her eyes met his again, her mouth gaping in a very unladylike fashion. "Steve…"

"Marry me, Peggy?" He dropped to one knee and presented a modest diamond chip. She knew he didn't have much, and must have saved every penny for a whole year just to afford the minimal ring. Even so, her heart pounded and her eyes watered. "Let's plan our future together."

The smile broadened over her face without any conscious thought. Her hands grasped at his and brought him up, even though she still had to look down at him when he was standing straight up. She wrapped herself tightly around him, each sharp angle of bone poking her as she hugged him. "Yes, Steve! Oh, yes!" she whispered frantically, holding tight as tears filled her eyes.

His cough for air was what pulled her away, her excitement fading to worry as she checked his eyes and the color of his lips. It wouldn't have been the first time she hugged him too tight, her lithe muscles honed by basic training constricting his small frame just a little too much in her excitement. But he was still his same pale peach, not quite healthy but not quite ill, either. He fumbled, pulling the ring out of the box and shoving the box in his pocket before reaching for her hand, his body shaking just a bit as he slipped the ring on her hand.

She looked at it, at the circle of gold with the little diamond chip that she adored but that the girls on the base would tease endlessly. She didn't care. He'd asked her, he'd finally stepped up and done it, and she was happier than she could ever remember being. She dropped her hand, smiling at him, "Oh, Steve…"

He leaned up on his toes and kissed her hard. It was more excitement than technique, his hands steading themselves on her shoulders. She grasped his elbows, holding as tight as she dared, wary of hugging him again in her fervor. They'd been physical but never much past some light wandering hands. She'd been brought up to be a proper woman, and even on a base of garish men, she didn't want to betray that which she thought should be saved for her husband. Yet, in this moment, she wanted to devour him, wanted to take him in that car and feel each skinny inch of him, let her hands wander over his bony shoulders and the prominent ribs. She smiled against his lips. She'd get to do that for the rest of their lives.

"I love you, Steve," she murmured, pulling away. "This isn't home, you are."

The sun was setting, casting a warm glow on his face. "Come on, let's head back to the base."

Peggy slid her hand down to his, giving a little squeeze before letting go and rounding the side of the army issue jeep they'd borrowed. "We should put the top up, looks like it might start raining before we get to the base."

They set quietly to lifting the bars and locking them in place, sliding the tarpaulin over and snapping and tying it down. Every once in a while their eyes would lock and she'd giggle, or he'd give her a shy smile. It reminded her of their second date. They knew there was something between them, but they'd still been timid and short on words. Yet, they were comfortable now, and happy. She looked at her ring as she slid her hand over the finished roof before slipping into the car. Forget Mrs. Ralph Hapchatt, She was going to be Mrs. Steve Rogers.

"Shall we, future husband?" She asked with a hint of mischief as he climbed in next to her. He laughed, sliding the key into the ignition and starting the jeep.

"You know," he started slyly as he turned the car towards the road, bumping slowly over the field that had been their parking lot as a hearse passed them, pulling up to the church in the rearview mirror, "Doctor Erskine isn't too far away."

Peggy's mind flashed to the medical doctor on the first base they'd worked at together. He'd been working on a secret project, hoped to involve Steve, but when he was unable to pass basic training he had been passed over. Instead, the Doctor had taken such a shine to her fiancé that he'd kept him on as an assistant. Project Rebirth had been scrapped when Erskine couldn't find a good candidate, but he'd stayed on as the base doctor, and helped get Steve into the army, even if he was little more than a glorified secretary. "I thought he retired to Germany?"

"He went back for a while," Steve began, turning on to the main road, "but it was too broken for him. He couldn't stand seeing the destruction, remembering those he'd lost." Steve sighed heavily; the doctor had become something of a second father to him. "He came back, settled by the coast."

"It would only be an extra hour at the most," Peggy mused lightly, trying not to look at her ring again, but failing. "We should stop by and share the good news."

Steve smiled at her, taking the next exit.

The rain had hit harder than they'd both expected. Night had descended before they knew it, and they'd turned onto a road that neither one had ever been on before, hoping that they were close to the Doctor's home.

A motorcycle sped past them, startling Peggy as she tried to see through the storm. She jumped, reaching for Steve's hand on the gearshift. He let his thumb brush over her wrist quickly before he grasped the gearshift tight again, his eyes never leaving the road.

"Where are they all coming from?" She asked, sitting tall and holding tight to her seat. "We must have taken a wrong turn…"

"I think we have," Steve admitted, but he shook his head sadly, "But there's no where to stop to get directions!" In the darkness not much was visible except for the trees around them. The road was dark and desolate, and with the rain starting to come in around the edges of the tarp, it gave him an uneasy feeling.

She didn't mind the rain, the cold wetness reminded her of their war days, but the thin blue dress she wore wasn't as rugged as her army issue, and she could feel the gooseflesh start to pimple across her arms. Steve was at least in his dress uniform. She knew that despite the cold that could easily lay him up with pneumonia, not much was getting through that olive colored wool on his arms.

Another motorcycle sped past and Steve shook his head, slowing the jeep. "They're taking their life in their hands, acting like it's cheap!" He huffed, hitting a fist on the jeep, "and it'll be my fault if I hit them in this weather!"

"Oh, Steve-"

Peggy's words were cut off as they bounced into a deep pothole, the burst of a tire popping and hissing in the fashion they were both familiar with. Steve slowed the jeep to a jerky halt, sighing. He turned and reached out a shaking hand. "You ok, Pegs?"

Peggy took a deep breath and nodded. "I'm fine, Steve." She shrugged and looked at the rain sheeting down the windshield. "Guess we're changing a tire?" Peggy pushed the door open and jumped out into the rain before Steve could stop her, knowing he'd hate her getting wet, but also knowing that it would take both of them to change it.

She could hear Steve rushing around the side of the truck, his dress shoes squishing in the mud. He met her at the back, his face falling just as hers had. "Where's the spare?" The mount for the spare tire was empty, dripping rain. "Where's the-!" Steve let out a grunt, kicking the deflated tire next to him. "These things ran through wars! One pothole and they're done? Dum Dum is gonna get a talking to when I get back!"

Peggy reached out, her hands slicking the rain from Steve's face. "It's alright. We'll think of something."

"I'm sorry, Peg," He dropped his head and stepped back, shrugging out of his jacket and draping it over her shoulders, even against her protests. "You're out here, you're wet, and we're stuck… all my fault."

"What's that?" Peggy asked, pointing over his shoulder and through the trees. She slipped her arms into his jacket, taking a deep breath and smelling his lingering aftershave and languishing in the warmth, even as she watched the rain quickly drench his dress shirt.

Steve turned, peering through the dense trees. "Looks like a light… some kind of big house. Castle, maybe? We are in that kinda area…"

Peggy stepped on the bumper and very nearly dove into the back of the jeep, pulling out an old map as she dropped back to the muddy ground. She reached out and tented it over Steve's head, waiting for him to grab it before she brushed his hair back out of his eyes. "Shall we?" she asked with a bright smile.

The walk had been longer than they both thought, a dense tree line followed by a long, uneven walkway that gave way to something that was halfway between a castle and a mansion. It had an old feel to it that gave Peggy chills. She wrapped her arm tighter around Steve's as they approached the front door. The double wooden monstrosities felt positively medieval.

"I wish you had your side arm," Steve murmured, looking up at the door and shaking the drenched map away from him as they stepped under the overhang.

Peggy snuggled into him for a moment before he raised his hand and rang the ornate doorbell. "I still know fifty-seven ways to kill a man without a gun," she whispered as they heard the bell clang through the house, "And that's just with my hands."

"That's my girl," Steve murmured, kissing her cheek just as the door opened.

The door creaked open, revealing a pale man with a drawn face. He had startling blue eyes and long, stringy brown hair. "Hello," he drawled in an English accent Peggy couldn't quite place.

"Ah, yes, hello," Steve set in, a cheery tone to his voice with just the tiniest hint of a wobble that she thought only she could hear. He was nervous, and she didn't blame him. This man looked at them like they were nothing, like he could crush them and they were imposing. "We've got a flat about a mile back down the road, do you have a phone we could use?"

The man looked them over, leaning back into the doorjamb with a dangerous smirk on his face. "You're wet."

Peggy just barely was able to keep from rolling her eyes. "Yes, it is raining quite hard."

"Yeah…" Steve murmured, looking back and forth between the man and his fiancé.

"Yes," the butler affirmed, seeming oblivious to the actual weather as he looked at them. Lightning streaked across the sky, making Steve and Peggy jump as the thunder roared right behind the light. Just out of the corner of his eye Steve saw the glint of metal and turned as the sound diminished. There, in the darkness, the rain bounced off of rows and rows of motorcycles. "You both better come inside," the butler said, interrupting Steve's thoughts and opening the door wide. His ratty suit was illuminated in the warm glow of the house.

"Why how kind of you," Peggy replied as she stepped into the dusty foyer, the sarcasm dripping from her lips. Before she and Steve could even shake some of the water away the butler was halfway down the hall, swaggering down a stairwell with a confidence that rubbed Peggy the wrong way. She stuck her hand out to the side without even looking and waited for the feel of Steve's cold, bony fingers sliding against hers before she started forward. She leaned over, her voice barely audible, "What kind of place is this?"

"Hunting lodge for rich weirdos, maybe?" He leaned in as they followed the man before them. "At least we figured out where all those motorcycles were coming from."

Peggy watched as moving down the staircase revealed a wider corridor, the cage for one of those new in-home elevators, and another set of stairs with a woman on them. Her maid's uniform was tattered and her long hair was wavy and wild. Her eyes glowed red and brown, with a blue streak of fire that Peggy thought must have been a trick of the light. When the woman looked up again, her long spindly fingers wrapping around the edge of a vacuum, her eyes were a dark brown that pierced her deep.

"This way," the dark haired butler said, sharing a long look with the other servant as they stepped into a widening of the hallway.

Peggy held Steve's hand tighter as she spoke. "Are you having a party tonight?"

The butler looked at her, a wide smile surfacing on his face. "Oh no, you've arrived on a very special night. The master is having one of his affairs."

"How…lucky," Peggy observed, shrugging and staying close to Steve. Something about these people unsettled her.

"He's lucky," the woman on the stairs drawled in a middle-European accent, letting her hand slide over the stair railing in a lascivious manner, "I'm lucky, you're lucky," She started laughing, leaning over the rail, her voice raising with insanity. "We're all lucky!"

Her laughter rang out as the clock behind them tolled midnight in deep brass tones, the butler's eyes drifting wild with insanity that shone like electricity in their blue depths. "Ignore Wanda," the words dripped from his lips, "she can get a little, excited."

"Loki…" She let his name slip from her lips like a song, high pitched and flirtatious, "you should bring them into the ballroom. Where are your manners?"

His smile shifted, like wolves teeth before they sunk into their prey, his eyes boring into her. Without a word he turned back to Peggy and Steve, softened but no less terrifying. "Right this way, my friends, to your left… sorry, a step to your right, then."

Peggy followed as he nearly herded them into a wide-open ballroom. It was different than the rest of the house: bright white walls, polished wood floors, buffets full of food and men and women dressed in formal suits dancing across the floor in a manner that she'd never seen before. "Steve…" She whispered, holding his hand tightly.

"Fifty-seven ways, Peggy. I only count forty-two people in here. We're just fine." His attempt at a joke went a long way to calm her down, but she still felt uneasy. The butler, Loki, was just a little too close to her and these people rubbed her the wrong way. "Hey, maybe they know how to do that new dance… the madison."

"Steve!" Peggy swatted him on the arm, looking askance at him. He just smiled a little at her as the maid came in behind them, draping herself across the doorframe. "This is not the time or place for that!"

"Of course it is!"

The voice was bright, booming from behind them to across the ballroom, stopping the party mid-step and causing everyone to turn and burst into applause. Peggy knew that voice: the light and uneven accent, the intonation, even the little half chuckle at the end of the sentence. She didn't turn around, even as the man came up behind them and draped his arm over Peggy and Steve's shoulders.

"How do you do? Why, Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers!" Howard Stark seemed… taller, somehow to her, peaking his head low between them, eyes wild. "I see you've met my handyman here. You weren't quite who we were expecting, but hey! What's a party without some old friends?"

"Are you…" Steve gulped, and pointed towards Howard's face. His mustache was still there, waxed even, but it was the bright red lipstick, the high contoured cheeks, the heavy blue eye shadow that really took Steve by surprise. He stuttered, but didn't get out the words.

Howard laughed, stepping back and rounding them. "Don't get strung out, Steve. It's just clothes!" He did a little spin in his platform heels that made his cape flare out around him. Peggy nearly gasped, but she held it in with a finger to her lips. She'd never see a man in heels and stockings before, never mind the scandalous satin panties and corset, and had never expected to see this on a man she had worked with so closely.

In a way, she felt it made him even more imposing, his jaunty hair and mustache topping his strong curves. She turned away and looked at Steve, who was nearly as uncomfortable. It was a long way from the suits they were used to seeing their friend sporting.

They'd both heard the rumors of what had happened to him after the war, but it was another thing to see him spinning madly in the ballroom, greeting guests with his nipples peaking from the top of the sequined attire.

Howard turned back to the two of them, realization dawning on his face. "You're wet!"

"It's raining," Steve jumped in before Peggy could, causing the butler next to them to laugh. "The Jeep we borrowed broke down. Just a coincidence that you're the only house around here, really."

"By design, my friend," Howard slinked forward, one foot in front of the other, swinging his hips in a way that Peggy had only seen on the most immoral of women before. "Can't have neighbors when you throw parties like this."

"Certainly not," Peggy tried to keep her opinion to herself, but it slipped out. She didn't want to judge her friend, not really, but it was hard to reconcile the man waving his hand before her with the scientist she knew from her days at Fort Lehigh. She bit her lip, embarrassed at her outburst. She let go of Steve's hand and walked down the couple of steps into the ballroom. "Howard, I'm sorry…"

He smirked at her, chucking her gently under the chin. "It's a lot more to take in than Vita-rays, huh?" He ran his hands over her shoulders and shook them off away from her. He snapped his fingers and Wanda moved to her, taking Steve's sodden jacket from her.

Peggy found she couldn't care less that Wanda was undressing her as she looked into Howard's eyes, blue streaks like lightning keeping her mesmerized in a way that made her very calm and yet very uncomfortable. "Howard… we just…" She took a deep breath. "Phone…"

"There will be time for that," Howard said, his hands resting on her bare shoulders as she stood in her slip, stockings and heels. "But now, we shall be merry!" Howard threw his hands up and turned to his guests.

Suddenly she felt naked, watching the people in brightly colored suits dance around her, the scientist at their center, swinging his cape. She turned back, seeing Steve in his vest and boxers, his socks and garters standing out black against his pale white skin, Loki standing behind him, holding his clothes away and following Wanda out of the room with hers. She scampered up the couple of steps, standing close to her fiancé. "Steve, I want to go. Now."

"No!" Howard came up behind them, wrapping them both in his cape and leading them out the door. "Please, stay. Let's… let's talk."

Steve rubbed his scrawny shoulders, the room just a hair to cold for him in just his shorts and vest. He looked over at Peggy, her head held high even though she was left in her slip and stockings. He tried not to stare, but it was hard, even under the circumstances.

Stark's heels clicked on the floor of the quiet drawing room as he sauntered over to the bar. He poured three glasses of what looked like whiskey and walked two back over to them as they watched silently. "So," he asked, a glint in his eye, "Your car got a flat?" He laughed, grabbing his own drink and sitting in a tall velvet chair, crossing his legs slowly. "How about that?"

"We really just were hoping to use a phone," Peggy replied curtly, her hands twisting more than she'd like on the glass he'd given her. The room wasn't cold, but it wasn't warm. She was aware of every breeze that brushed over her skin where cloth should have been, aware of every look over her frame and Steve's from the millionaire's gaze.

"No one will come out this way, I'm afraid. Not on a night like this." Howard shrugged and took a sip of his drink, his corset sliding over his ribs. He swirled the amber liquid and leaned forward. "Perhaps you should stay the night. I do have plenty of room."

Steve shook his head. He wasn't sure what this man had in mind, but knew that this wasn't a costume party and that there was something…off behind this man's gaze. He didn't like it, not one bit. He'd take his chances in the rain with the motorcycles. "That's very kind of you-"

"I insist!" Stark shot to his feet, his drink spilling over the rim of his cup. Peggy admired the way he didn't wobble in the stilettos once. This was not a one time occurrence for the man, she knew by the way he handled him self in the heels. She didn't much care- she'd heard the rumors of how eccentric he'd become after Project Rebirth was scrapped, of how he'd turned to booze and found a hideaway in the hills. She just never expected to see it first hand.

Peggy and Steve looked at one another as she reached out and took his hand. "We are old friends…" She turned back to Howard, smiling just a little. "We can stay the night."

"Fantastic!" Howard put his drink down and took their untouched glasses from their hands. "I have so much to discuss with you. But first…" He pulled a cord on the wall by Steve's head and a great gong sounded. "Let's get you into something a little more… appropriate."

Howard's gaze wandered over them both in the same slow and devouring manner. It made Peggy shiver and Steve dance awkwardly from one foot to the other. The door opened just when his silent appraisal was getting to be too much.

"Master?" A redhead in a skintight leather cat suit slipped into the room, her voice low and calm and her eyes dancing with the same blue lightning Peggy kept seeing.

Howard stepped back and raised his eyebrows at Peggy. "Take Miss Carter to find something more… suitable. I'll make sure to take care of Mr. Rogers." He smiled, enough to remind Peggy of a shark with eyes full of lightning and mischief. "We'll meet in the laboratory, Natasha."

Peggy met Steve's slightly panicked gaze as Natasha pressed her from the room, leading her into the elevator.

The redhead looked her up and down. "You're lucky to be invited to the laboratory."

Peggy forced a smile. "Howard used to have a laboratory when I knew him in the army. Back… during the war."

Natasha looked right at her, her eyes flashing bright blue and clearing to deep black. "He was a different man then. Keep that in mind."

Peggy started to ask her a question, but Natasha pushed her out of the stopped elevator and into the waiting arms of Wanda. "Stark wants her in something more suitable."

Wanda laughed and reached behind her into a closet, tossing a black silk robe at Peggy. "Should be good enough for you." Her voice dripped with hatred, venom that Peggy didn't understand. "To the laboratory."

"Steve, I've shocked you." Howard put his arm around the small man, bringing him to the back of the study and through a back door to another hallway, this one white and sterile.

Steve shrugged and coughed, rubbing his hands up and down his arms. "Well, Howard, what you do on your own time isn't really any of my business."

Howard stretched out a leg, stocking and all, and laughed before he kept them moving down the twisting and descending corridor. "I appreciate your… discretion. But if you can believe it, that's not the most shocking thing about me now." Howard stopped and turned Steve towards him, his eyes burning like blue fire. "Steve, I've been working on Project Rebirth."

Steve had to do everything he could to keep his jaw from dropping. That project had been Erskine's baby. Steve had been his first choice, but Stark hadn't been able to make it work. There was a problem with the Vita-Ray to serum proportions. The mice had all died. The military had vetoed Steve as a candidate and forced Erskine to cease all testing. Stark had left, embarrassed. Steve had moved on to working for Erskine, and that had been how he'd finally gotten the nerve up to ask Peggy out, under the tutelage of the Erskine. "How- Why, Howard?"

"Because I had it right. I had it right the whole time." He smiled maniacally, pulling Steve into a bright white laboratory that was filled to the brim with equipment that Steve had seen before. It was the capsule he'd been preparing himself to enter into in those first few weeks, the workstations that were going to monitor the changes as he became something more than he'd ever been before. It was the set for his rebirth, the place where he was going to forget his asthma and delicate bones and flat feet and finally, finally become the man he'd always wanted to be recreated in Howard's basement. Howard swept around the room. "I had it all right, Steve, it just doesn't fucking work on mice!" He laughed, maniacal and broken.

Steve could see Loki, in his tattered butler uniform, lingering in the corner. "They stopped it for a reason, Howard…"

Stark slid across the room, shedding his cape and switching it out for a green smock and pink gloves over his corset and stockings. "No, Steve, they halted scientific discovery. The stopped my genius. They stopped progress." He moved in, sliding a finger across Steve's chest and up under his chin. "They stopped you from attaining what you've always been meant to attain."

Loki crept up behind Steve, taking both of his arms and holding him still as Howard leaned forward. "Steve, you shall be my greatest work."

"No, no, Howard I-" Steve's protest fell short as Loki turned him and looked into his eyes, his gaze glowing bright blue.

Loki laughed as Steve calmed in his arms. "Yes, Captain. You will be."

"Natasha, Wanda, help Loki!" Howard boomed the instructions from the center of the room as the elevator finally landed. Peggy, not quite any more comfortable in her satin robe, shuffled out and away as the two women ran to assist the other servant. "Peggy! Just in time!"

She turned a circle, looking at the hulking machines around her. "Howard, please tell me this isn't what I think it is."

"I have it, Peggy," he whispered to her before straightening up and booming his announcement to the onlookers from the party that were now around the upper perimeter of the room. "I have found the code to crack human development!"

Applause erupted around them, and Peggy's heart quickened. "Where's Steve?" Howard turned and addressed the adoration of those around him, but she ran behind and pulled on his green smock. "Where is Steve?"

"Everything is ready, master," Wanda supplied, standing at readiness at the side of one of the control panels. Natasha stood at another set of controls, while Loki looked on ominously. Howard smiled, his pink gloves squeaking as he rubbed his hands together.

"Yes! The time has come!" Howard went to the center of the room, a bounce in his heeled step, and caressed the outside of the green pod. He turned dramatically, letting his back press against it. "Tonight, my friends, you will bear witness to the greatest breakthrough in biochemical research that has ever been known to mankind!"

The crowd around Peggy erupted in applause, but all she could see was Howard, all she knew was the sinking feeling in her stomach, the panic that rose in her throat. "Where is Steve?" she shouted hoarsely, rushing Howard, only to be stopped by Loki, his strong arm around her waist. He didn't say a word, just held her in a position that kept her from striking out. She knew where Steve was, and there was no way she'd be able to stop this in time.

Howard smiled at her. His teeth seemed so wolfish to her now, she didn't know how she hadn't seen it before. "My genius was stunted, my friends. The United States Army said it shouldn't be done, that it couldn't be done, but they didn't know. They sabotaged my work, you see. They ended it. It left me broken, betrayed, unsure of all my work!" Howard paced around the green pod, his hair falling in his face, his motions manic. "But all it took were a few words of support, a few close friends to remind me of why I did what I did," His eyes met the eyes of the man holding her, and Peggy swore she could see that electric blue current again, "and the secret of Dr. Erskine's formula was once again mine."

There were gasps around them, the full gallery erupting in whispers as tears gathered in Peggy's eyes. "Please, Howard…"

Howard nearly lunged for her, his eyes wide and full of bright blue fire in his irises, sweat breaking out on his forehead. "Oh, Peggy…" His voice dropped low as his hand cupped her cheek, gently caressing it as she stood stiff against his touch. "Peggy, it was fate. Don't you see? Don't you see how it was fate that you and Steve just _happened_ to stumble upon me tonight?" He kissed her forehead, stepping back, the bravado filling him once more. "Fate!" He laughed as he reached the pod, caressing it with his bright pink hand. "Steve was always Erskine's first choice. This was meant for him." His voice boomed thought the room, "Tonight, I will fulfill the destinies that have been denied us!"

Peggy could feel Loki's chuckles behind her. She tried to move, but his grip was like iron. She could take him down- three moves and he'd be on the floor, five and he'd be dead- but where would that leave her? She couldn't take the chance that she'd escape without Steve, that she wouldn't know what happened to him, that one of Howard's dangerous friends wouldn't somehow best her, leaving Steve to fend for himself.

She gave a twist, just to remind him that she wasn't happy at being held back. Loki only tightened his grip. "My dear," he nearly purred in her ear, well below the din of the onlookers as Howard bowed and acknowledged all of them, "you are about to be witness to one of the greatest miracles of modern science that there will ever be." He took a deep breath and held her tighter, his breath coursing over her neck. "Savor it."

Howard took his place at the massive control panel. He nodded at Natasha and she connected a large tube to the green pod, snapping it in with a twist and a hiss. For a second Peggy could almost see the man he used to be behind the flashy dress and the wild look in his eyes. "Throw open the switches on the sonic oscillator!" His command was sure in a deep, calm voice that Peggy had heard dozens of times. It almost, almost made her feel confident that he wouldn't hurt Steve.

The room hummed with energy, the pod pressing high into the air. Howard situated himself at a small wheel, setting a pair of dark glasses over his eyes. "Ten percent," he murmured as he turned the wheel, "Twenty percent, thirty…forty…" his voice got louder with each step up, his eyes flicking back and forth between the controls and the pod.

The pod began to glow with the saturated Vita-Rays, the energy making every cell in Peggy's body vibrate. "Step up the power reactor input three more points!" Howard's command sent Wanda scurrying to the other side of the panel where she flicked a switch and turned a wheel frantically.

"Fifty!" Howard laughed, his heels slipping just a bit on the tile. "Sixty!" The murmur in the gallery got a little louder, and Peggy could feel her heart pounding in her chest. "Seventy!"

Suddenly, a cry erupted. Peggy knew that sound. It was Steve, and he was in pain. "Shut it down!" she cried out, struggling against the inhuman grip of the man behind her.

"Peggy!" He called, frantic now. "No- no I can do this!"

"Steve!" Peggy begged as her knees buckled and his cries stopped, the absence of noise even more frightening to her than his strangled cries. Loki lowered her to the floor, releasing his grip and smirking at her as she cried.

"Yes, yes you can, Steve!" Howard laughed and turned the wheel faster. "Eighty, ninety, that's one hundred percent!"

The glow was almost blinding, even from the small window in the pod. Suddenly the equipment around Howard began to spark, Natasha and Wanda stepping back from their stations, turning away. Loki surged forward, his hands tense at his sides, waiting.

Everything seemed to slow down, a few sparks fizzling to life as the blinding light faded to blackness. The energy hum dissipated and the whir in Peggy's ears that she hadn't even noticed drifted away to silence. Only the breaths of the guests could be heard as Howard stared at the pod. Peggy forced herself to standing, wobbling on her heels and pulling the satin robe tighter around her.

With a burst of pneumatic energy the pod split, revealing a man that Peggy hadn't seen before. Her heart stopped for a moment, wondering what Howard had done with Steve, then he tipped his head down and she saw his face.

It was him. It was her Steve.

But the body- the body was… She took a shuddering breath. It was just like Erskine said it would be- a super soldier. Steve had muscles and bulk and… and more height? Yes, he was taller. Bulging muscles were cut out under tanned, healthy skin. The paleness was gone. The bulging edges of bone were gone. The hollows under his eyes were gone and… and even the slight wheeze he had when he would breathe was gone. Just like Erskine had said- he was the perfect soldier and the picture of health.

The lab erupted in applause as Howard and Natasha surged forward, nearly catching Steve as he stumbled down from the pod platform. "We did it?" Steve mumbled, still looking at the floor with half closed eyes.

Howard looked him over, something between pride and hunger coloring his gaze. "Oh yeah, we did it."

Peggy just about tripped over her own feet as she ran to Steve, Loki still standing where she had been, smiling widely. She couldn't have cared less, though. She didn't care about the people in the room, or Steve in the suddenly too small boxers that hugged his hips and thighs. His vest and socks were gone, leaving him as bare as she'd ever seen him to the world. She stopped short in front of him as Howard helped him stand tall. "How… how do you feel?" She reached out, her hand touching his chest, and pulled it back fast, her mouth and eyes wide as he tried to catch his breath with deep, healthy gulps of air.

"Taller," he replied, still slightly confused and disoriented. He focused his eyes on her, reaching out to take her hand.

She smiled a little, the pounding of her heart calming as his hand touched hers. "You look taller." The smile melted off her face and she reared back, punching him hard in the left shoulder. "Don't you dare ever do _anything_ like that to me again!"

Steve flinched, but for the first time he really looked at his new body, flexing his arm and watching the muscles ripple beneath the skin. He looked back at Peggy and shook his head a bit to change his train of thought. "Peggy- it was always supposed to be me, and Howard said…" Steve's voice trailed away as his eyes filled with confusion. "I… I can't remember what Howard said…"

Just as Steve was turning to Howard to find out how he'd convinced him to step into that pod, especially without discussing it with Peggy first, Loki came up behind them, draping his arms over Steve and Peggy's shoulders. "Master, he is truly a sign of your genius!"

Steve and Peggy both stared at the man between them, unsure that anyone around them could detect the sarcasm, the distain amongst the cheer in his words. Howard just basked in the praise, wallowing in the adoration. "Yes, yes."

"He is a triumph of your will!" Wanda's accent was thick as she slid up to Howard, leaning into him and staring at Steve, her eyes glazed over, betraying little of her real feelings.

Another loud burst of applause accompanied his thanks as Steve finally slowed his breathing.

Natasha, leaning against one of the far control panels, looked at he nails and did a double take when Loki cleared his throat in her direction, trying to prompt her praise. She shrugged. "He's ok."

Howard looked at Natasha with hatred in his gaze. "I didn't make him for you!" He stalked over to Steve, pulling the man away from Loki and Peggy. "Let's hear what the fiancé has to say, shall we? Peggy?"

Peggy stammered, looking Steve in the eyes. "I- I love Steve. It doesn't matter what he looks like on the outside." She wouldn't lie- it was better to have Steve this way- he would be stronger- important for the Army- and he was less likely to die of pneumonia if his lungs were as strong as she hoped, but she already missed the old him, missed the slightness, the smallness, she already noticed how his hand felt different in hers- larger, stronger. As long as he was still the same man she fell in love with, though, it wouldn't matter.

Howard just groaned. "Love, right." He huffed and walked Steve around the room, gesturing to Steve's new form. "This- this has the Charles Atlas seal of approval!" He stopped Steve in the center, the pod still wide behind him, the party guests gazing at him as if he were dinner. "You used to be a weakling- what, ninety eight pounds soaking wet? Hodge used to kick you on the ground and throw sand in you face for fun at Lehigh!" Howard shook his head as he walked behind him, making Steve more than a little nervous as the pink rubber gloves danced across his arms, back, and chest, outlining each muscle with every word.

"And I saw you in that gym, Rogers," Howard laughed a light huff, "Press ups, chin ups, the snatch, clean and jerk…" Peggy watched as his hands roamed just a bit more, became more suggestive. "Nothing worked, did it?"

"God created the earth and all its creatures in seven days, I created this in just minutes!" Howard boomed his proclamation to the room to another bout of bright applause. He turned, eye to eye with Steve now. "I made you a man, Steve."

Just as Steve was about to reply, a high-pitched alarm sounded. A heavy vault door on the far side of the room trembled and then crashed to the floor, making everyone jump and the guests scatter in a crush of panic. A tall man in leather with a metallic arm emerged from what seemed to be some kind of freezer, frost dotting his features.

"Bucky!" Natasha shouted, vaulting over the control panel and rushing to his side.

Steve met Peggy in a few quick strides, pushing her behind his back and moving them both to a wall. The newcomer held out his metal hand, signaling Natasha to slow down as Peggy called out to Howard. "Who is he?" She needed to know if this was a threat, even though she was already barely teetering on the edge as it was.

"Delivery boy," Loki snarled, circling the man. "He didn't deliver."

"I thought you went back?" Natasha asked, just loud enough for Peggy to hear. The woman seemed different. With the stranger her eyes cleared, her manner was more direct and yet somehow softer. There was a look in the redhead's eyes that Peggy would almost call love.

The man flicked his hair out of his face and looked out for the first time. Peggy grabbed Steve's shoulders when the man's eyes met hers. Peggy was sure she was the only one that could hear Steve when he spoke, "Bucky? My Bucky?"

Bucky pulled a gun from his hip holster and held it out with sure aim at the butler. "I was going to go back, was gonna let you handle this, but Loki had other ideas."

The butler sauntered over, not a care in the world for the gun. "How?" Steve whispered to her, "I saw Bucky just a few weeks ago- he didn't- he didn't look anything like that, but- but…"

"Of course I had other ideas!" Loki, suddenly much more regal despite his rags, marched up to Bucky and grabbed the gun from his hand before the man could use it. "You knew how this worked, Soldier," Loki side-eyed Natasha, "you all did."

Peggy tried to follow the conversation, but very little made sense to her. What she did know was that his eyes were that bright blue again, that the people around them seemed to follow without thought, that Howard, dear Howard who had once thrown Peggy clear across an army tent to get her out of the way of an overflowing beaker that erupted into flames, didn't seem to care that these people were waving guns around.

Steve cared, though. Still slick with sweat, he kept Peggy behind him. She almost wanted to laugh because had he still been the man he physically was before he stepped into that pod he would have done the same thing, even though he wouldn't have been able to shield her from a fly.

"You needed me, you asked for my help," Peggy heard Loki growl.

"Not like this," Bucky replied, struggling against an invisible force. He kept looking at Peggy and Steve, and she knew that look. It was Barnes, all right, but an older, wiser, more broken Barnes.

Natasha seemed to break out of whatever hold was keeping them all still, landing her hand on the gun Loki held, trying to wrestle it from his grasp. "You're playing dirty."

Loki laughed and jumped back, waving the gun in the air and pointing at himself. "Bad guy!" He sighed and slithered up behind Natasha. "Don't be so surprised, my dear." With a wave of Loki's hand Bucky was encircled in a bright blue orb, almost too much to look at with crackling intensity. A staff appeared in Loki's hand out of thin air, and with a touch of it's golden point, Bucky disappeared with a rush of wind.

Steve squeaked out a sound that might have been a protest, but he didn't move, couldn't move. They were still held in stillness with whatever that man was doing. "Don't forget, my dear, that this benefits me, as well."

Natasha snarled at him, moving just the slightest. Peggy could feel Steve straining against whatever was holding them still.

Loki stepped back into the center of the room, staring ruefully at those around him. A golden shimmer swathed him for a moment, and Peggy could have sworn she saw great, curling horns on his head for a second. He shook his head and lifted his arms and the staff high. "I think we're done with this, don't you?"

Peggy clutched the robe around herself. She wasn't sure how she gotten into the bedroom with the great hulking four-posted bed, or where Steve had gone. They was fuzzy, her memories. She could remember Steve, strong and breathless, stepping out of the pod, could remember Howard talking to them, and then…

…then there was nothing.

Gas, perhaps, or a neurotoxin? Peggy hated the feeling. It's why she didn't go on all night benders or dabble in whatever the corps were smoking these days behind the tents. She wanted to be quick witted and clear, to be able to take care of herself and Steve… "Steve?" She whispered, standing and tightening the satin belt that did little to help protect her modesty. "Are you here?" She tiptoed around the room, trying handles and knobs.

The only time they ever stayed apart was when they were on base sleeping in barracks. She couldn't imagine that they'd agreed to spend the night separate from one another here. It only made her more determined. She reached the door, turned the knob, and found it immoveable. She took a deep breath, grasped it tight with both hands, and with a massive push found herself on the floor, looking up at Steve in the doorway.

"Steve!" He held out his hand and lifted her to her feet. "Something's…" She took a deep breath, ready to finish her sentence, but something stopped her. His hands... they didn't feel right.

"Very wrong, I know." He finished the sentence for her. He'd found pants somewhere- army issue Khaki it looked like- and a white undershirt. He stepped into the room, closing the door behind him and ushering her back to the edge of the bed. He sat her down and held her hands. "I can't remember how we got here from the lab."

She looked into his eyes, her fingers running over his, and couldn't kick the feeling that something was wrong. "I know, neither can I." She tried to suppress it. It was Steve, her Steve, and this new him felt so different to her. She wished she could remember something-anything-

His lips were on hers in a second, faster than she could think. She wanted to shout that this was not the time for this, but his new body pressed up against hers and his hands wandered over her thighs and the thoughts slipped from her brain. His lips followed down the curve of her cheek to the slope of her neck as a soft sigh slipped from her lips.

"It's alright, Peggy. Everything's going to be alright," Steve whispered as he bit at her earlobe.

She wasn't sure what it was that made her open her eyes, but maybe it was the way that Steve didn't normally reassure her with placations, or the fact that he felt bigger than she was used to, but more sinewy than his bulk suggested under that thin shirt. Either way, she opened her eyes, scanning his back over his shoulder as he continued to kiss her.

It wasn't much, just a half a second, but she was sure she saw it. Her hand was below his shirt. Not under it, not against his skin, but below his shirt. It was as if he wasn't really here… and yet there was someone on top of her, someone caressing down her thigh.

Peggy lifted her legs and rolled mightily. The man was below her now, moaning with delight. She pulled back, having none of it. "Who are you?" She asked, bracing her elbow against the man's throat.

Steve shimmered away and below her was a very smug looking Loki. He seemed more regal than he had before, though she could discern nothing different about him. Perhaps it was the bright shimmer in his eyes as the magic faded away, the certain smug tone they held as he looked her up and dawn, his roaming gaze stopping at her cleavage.

She didn't much care where he looked; he was no longer allowed to touch any of it. A little more pressure and he'd pass out shortly, some additional pressure and a quick twist and he'd never wake up again. "Oh, you know me by now, don't you?" He laughed. "Come on, my dear, isn't this nice?"

She slid her fist down to a nerve bundle in his shoulder, applying pressure until he winced visibly. "No, it isn't. What have you done with Steve?"

"Nothing!" He replied quickly before letting his eyebrows dance suggestively at her. "Why, do you think I should?"

She bounced onto her knees, allowing just a little more pressure on his neck and forcing him to stop that infernal smirk he was making. "You tricked me into thinking you were Steve."

His hands ran up her arms as he held her gaze. "It wasn't all bad now, though, was it?" His fingers trailed over her back, but Peggy fought to show no response. "I think, maybe, you're finding some of this pleasurable!"

"I never!" Peggy leaned in, frustrated and enraged.

Loki laughed as much as he could, his eyes gleaming. "I didn't think you'd be into _this_ , though, darling. I'm sure your little soldier boy can't handle these games!"

"Steve!" Peggy's shout was quickly silenced by one of Loki's fingers across her lips.

"Oh, come now. Would you want him to see you like this?" Loki used his other hand to press up on her arm, giving him enough room to sit.

Peggy was surprised by how strong he was, but he didn't catch her completely off guard. She leaned back, letting him think she was relenting, just far enough to get her weight distributed just the right way. With a smile she wound up and swung her left arm, aiming for his jaw.

His laughter rang out as Peggy collapsed in a heap on the bed, hair in her eyes and very clearly alone. Where he went or how, she couldn't say. She just knew she'd had enough of this.

Steve awoke to the sensation of a hand trailing over his bicep, soft fingers tracing every inch. "Steve, we can't stay here."

"I know, Peg." He rolled and reached out to Peggy, the way he's done hundreds of times before. He gathered her in his arms and felt a strange sensation. He was so used to her being bigger than him, to her limbs feeling stronger, that something felt off now. Being in that pod, changing, stepping out and seeing the wonder on Peggy's face while there was no mirror for him to actually even see, he just knew. He felt bigger, felt bulkier, but he still hadn't seen it for himself.

But Peggy somehow didn't feel like Peggy to him. He just tried to remember that everything would feel odd for a bit, or at least he imagined it would. He couldn't remember talking to Howard afterwards, couldn't remember Stark giving him any instructions or even how he got to this big bed in this dark, warm room.

What he did know was that he had Peggy in his arms, and that everything would be ok if that were the case. "We'll be away from here in the morning." She moaned and wrapped closer to him and Steve found his nose buried in her neck. Instead of getting a deep, comforting breath of her perfume, however, he smelt a tangy, spicy scent that alarmed him. "You smell… so good."

He caught himself from giving his suspicion away, but his heart was pounding. He'd been with Peggy through so much in the army, even through basic training. He knew what she felt like, knew what she smelled like, and this- this was not Peggy. The body kissing it's way down his neck was not her.

Instinctively he held the body closer, not from arousal, but in trying to halt the person's movement and to keep the emotions playing across his face hidden. "Oh, Steve, not until after the wedding!"

The voice was hers, but the touch was all wrong. The hands were raking over him gently, like he might break. Even at his frailest that one winter when there had barely been enough rations, Peggy had never touched him with anything but surety. "Right, right…"He pulled back a bit, playing into the charade.

"We could try it like this, though…" The body rolled him on to his back and disappeared beneath the sheets.

In the dark he couldn't tell who was down there, but he did his best to stop them. It was dark and he was grasping. The person thought they were token protests, they were strong, as well, stronger than he ever though they'd be. Finally he pushed the person off, sliding up and reaching out, switching on the bedside lamp.

"You!" Steve exclaimed as Loki slithered up from under the sheets. The butler was rumpled, but some how more regal than he had been before. "What the hell?"

"Oh, come on, Steve, it wasn't all bad," he laughed, leaning back against the headboard.

Steve launched himself across the bed, the frame cracking beneath them as he pushed Loki back into the headboard by his shoulders. "What have you done with Peggy?"

Loki smiled like the cat that ate the canary. "Nothing. Why? Do you think I should?"

Steve leaned over the man menacingly, but that didn't stop Loki from stroking up and down over Steve's bared abs. Steve pulled out of the man's reach. "You tricked me. I wouldn't have."

"So soft," Loki crooned while reaching out again. "I think you found some of it quite… pleasurable."

Steve shifted to sit at the end of the bed, looking over his arms and body for he first time. "What do you want from us?" Loki didn't reply, didn't even move enough to make the bed shift, so Steve turned and stared into the man's befuddled eyes. "What?"

"We were just rolling around in bed and that's the reaction that I get? No old-fashioned sensibilities to damage? No out of date slurs you want to sling at me?" Loki sat up, honestly perplexed.

Steve shrugged. "You see a lot of things when you're in an all male barracks that houses hundreds of soldiers. None of my business. I just want to get my fiancé and get out of here."

Loki huffed, standing from the bed and dramatically sweeping through the room. "I can't believe I thought you'd actually be any fun!" He took a couple of steps closer to the man and looked him over again. "You really should look into a mirror some time. I truly have done the world a favor."

Before Steve's eyes the man vanished, not in a plume of smoke or sparks like in the movies, but he simply disappeared atom by atom as if he'd never been there at all.

Steve sighed and stood, feeling a second of dizziness from the extra height. He looked down and sighed. All he was wearing was a small, gold bathing suit. "If we're gonna get out of here I'm gonna need some clothes…"

Peggy's mother always told her to be home by 11. Nothing good ever happened after 11. But she couldn't fathom that all this would have happened. Sure, a good old robbery, a man trying to be fresh with her… but this?

She crept through the hallways, grasping the robe tight around her. There had to be a way out of here. She'd find it, then go back for the others. Stark was insane… more than just a mad scientist. He'd taken things far too hard, perhaps, but it was clear that something was wrong. He wasn't the man he used to be, but he also wasn't completely there. That man, Loki, had done something. That blue sparkle in their eyes, the way they begrudgingly acknowledged him. She had sparks of a memory, of another man with a metal arm and of Loki taking charge, but the memory was fuzzy and wouldn't solidify.

Another turn and Peggy found herself in another corridor. "If only the car hadn't broken down…" she mumbled to herself, walking silently over the carpet that ran down the hall. She vaguely remembered this from walking with Wanda and Natasha, but she couldn't recall if she wanted to make a right or a left when she got to the end of the hallway. She looked both ways and took a left.

Only a few steps in her foot slipped in a thick, slimy puddle. Peggy winced, stepped back, and rubbed her foot on the carpet to clean it as much as she could. "If only we were amongst sane persons…"

Steve stumbled into the lab, still only clad in the tight gold shorts. He wasn't sure how he found it, exactly, but he could have sworn that his senses were at least a little sharper. Maybe his memory was, too.

He swallowed hard at the sight of the pod where he was made, remembering Stark helping him in, remembering the feeling of determination the man had brought up in him, the desire to do Erskine proud.

He could remember Peggy's voice over the din, the fear in her yells echoing fears inside him that he'd never voiced.

He turned away, unsure if he'd done the right thing, and was faced with the side of one of the hulking machines. Nothing about it was remarkable, except for that it was polished stainless steel that might has well have been a mirror.

He was taller and stronger for sure. The bathing suit left little to the imagination. He wasn't a completely new person, but rather almost a comic book version of himself. His shoulders were broad, his hips narrow, muscles rippling with exertion and sweat. Even his hair looked fuller and more vibrant. He closed his eyes and thought of Erskine and wondered if this was what the man had ever really wanted, or if this was some perversion of the process that Stark had put together to be the ultimate playboy.

A rustling on the other side of the door broke his concentration, sending him hiding behind the machine that he'd just used as a looking glass.

Peggy slipped through the door and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw she finally had the right room. She couldn't fathom how she'd gotten herself so turned around, but somehow she'd managed to make her way through nearly every room in the building first.

She'd find the information that she needed and then she'd get out, simple as that.

"Peggy."

The whisper caught her off guard. It was a voice she would have sworn she'd know anywhere, but after the events of the last half hour she couldn't even rely on that. "Steve?" She replied quietly, stepping further into the room.

He emerged from behind one of the computer banks, dressed in very little, and approached her cautiously. He must have had a rough half hour, too, if the look of him was any indication. She struggled to keep her eyes on his face. She hadn't had a chance to properly look him over. The fiancé who'd nursed him through half a dozen bouts of respiratory infections wanted to spin him around and check every inch of him over, make sure that he was ok and race him right back to the base for tests. The soldier in her, however, knew that they needed to figure out what was going on here.

Peggy hesitated, but slowly reached out and took his hand. He grasped her fingers tight, like a lifeline, with more strength than she'd ever felt in his grip. Yes, his hand still felt odd, but this time, it felt like him. It was in the way he wrapped his fingers around hers, the slight stroke his first finger would make every few seconds. And his eyes- they were blue, but without that lightning she'd seen from everyone else. They were the same blue that she'd stared into every day, the same blue she'd fallen in love with, the same blue no matter if he was skinny or strong. "Steve." It wasn't a question, she knew.

He seemed to be doing the same appraisal of her, his eyes roaming, not stopping on her cleavage as some had done, not taking stock, but really looking at her, just like he did before he'd sketch her. His free hand moved slowly, coming up to cup her jaw, his thumb slowly stroking over her cheek. "Where were you?"

"I-"

She was interrupted by heels striking the floor outside loudly. They froze for a second, but the steps were coming closer, and the two voices attached to the footsteps were in a heated argument. "Come on," Steve whispered as he tugged Peggy with him towards the pod. He stepped in and gave her hand a gentle tug.

"In there?" She asked desperately. Admittedly, there were little other choices when it came to places to hide, but that pod was not exactly her first one, even if it was the best.

"Yes!" He reached out with his other hand and lifted her in as if she weighed nothing, a novel feeling for them both. When Peggy was pulled tight against him he hit a small switch by his hip that Peggy had never noticed before.

"What is that?" She asked as the pod closed in around them with a hiss.

"Emergency open and shut," he shrugged. "Seemed silly when Erskine showed it to me, but he was afraid that if things went wrong and Stark's circuits went bad they wouldn't be able to get me out. He said it works on it's own redundant system to open and close the pod."

Peggy took a deep breath and wrapped her arms tightly around Steve as the doors sealed shut. He'd been right, there was enough room for them both, but just barely. "Air?" she asked as quietly as she could.

He leaned his head down to her ear, whispering. "Once the Vita Ray tube is disconnected it's no longer an air tight system." He placed a kiss on the very edge of the jaw. "I've got you."

She turned her head slightly to get her lips just a little closer to his ear. "Good thing I'm not claustrophobic, then." She buried her head in the hollow at his neck as the door slammed open, taking a few calming breaths. It was a luxury to be in his arms at the moment, even if everything was still falling apart around them.

She yearned to get to know his new body, but she fought to keep her hands from wandering. Instead she put her mind on the task at hand as she felt Steve's breath slow on her neck.

It was the two women, Wanda and Natasha, who'd burst into the lab. They were arguing in what was either Russian or some form of Eastern European dialect.

"Just stop!" Wanda finally yelled in English. "Stark may not understand us but we both know Loki does, and trying to translate when I'm angry is very hard!"

Natasha's anger ceased as she calmed. "What do you mean, translate?"

"You keep using my country's word for 'potato' but I know that you're not actually saying potato so I'm getting very confused." Wanda replied. Peggy had to force herself not to laugh at that.

"Fine, I'll brush up later."

The volume of their conversation fell as one woman approached the other, heels clicking on the floor. "We have to end this. He's having too much fun."

Natasha's words were matter of fact. "That's what he does. It's all always fun to him."

"But why are we the ones here? Why isn't Thor here?" Wanda asked.

"Could you imagine Thor here? That's exactly the reason. He's a great guy, but if you threw a party every night Thor would be useless."

"He does enjoy a good party," Wanda mused.

Natasha's tone was full of urgency, attempting to placate the other woman. "Plus we're better actresses. No one knows about the contact lenses that Banner made. Not even Bucky- that's why he keeps getting sent back to the past. Between the lenses and the temporal shift we're still barely hanging on by a thread, and that's only because Loki needs us for this."

"You know I don't like it."

"I don't like it either, but you know he's right. We may not be fans of Loki's, and this may not be the best way to do it, but the world needs Captain America."

"Who?" Steve whispered in Peggy's ear, but she just reached up and covered his mouth with her hand, intent on hearing the conversation.

"I still don't understand," Wanda huffed, "what him being alive does. We've lived without him just fine, why do we need him?"

"Quantum theory," Natasha rattled off as she worked with something that clanked in her hands.

"That means nothing to you and you know it." Wanda spat at the woman.

"Fine, but it means a lot to Bruce and Tony. I trust them. They say this needs to be done, I do it. When a man comes from another reality to save someone, you do it."

"You're sleeping with him," Wanda accused.

Natasha laughed. "Bucky? I'm good, but I'm not that good."

"No, Bruce, and don't change the subject."

"So?"

"So you sure you can trust the man who turns into the hulk?"

"I sleep with him, don't I? That takes a lot of trust." Natasha sighed hard. "Look, we can debate this all we want when it's over."

"Why isn't it over? He's out of the pod, he is who he needs to be."

Peggy felt Steve stiffen in her arms. It was about him, and it made her furious. She let her fingers stroke over the back of his neck in an attempt to calm him in the tight space without giving themselves away.

"I don't know, but if Loki's not done, then we're not done." She took a long, deep breath. "There. Transmission sent. They're going to open another portal in two hours."

"Hopefully."

"They will."

Peggy let her hand slip away from Steve's mouth as they heard the door to the lab shut. Even then, neither wanted to move. The pod was warm, nearly uncomfortably so, but it was also safe, at least for the time being. "What the hell is going on, Peggy?" Steve asked, burying his head into her hair, hiding more if it was at all possible.

"I don't know." She let her fingers drift through the short military cut of his hair, let her nails scratch softly at his skin in a slow, lazy pattern. It was calming her, too, to just be with him, to let her hands move without thought. Reminiscent of so many nights they'd stolen together, it was something safe and familiar. Even if the body Steve inhabited was no longer as she remembered it, they way he held her, the way he wrapped himself around her, was still very much the same. "It's no worse than any of the spots we've gotten ourselves into before with Hydra."

Steve sighed. "My body would like to beg to differ."

Peggy pulled back and kissed the curve of Steve's jaw. "My body would be very interested in your body's rebuttal."

It didn't take much for their lips to meet, or for the frustration and adrenaline to take over until their lips were meshing furiously, their arms and legs battling in the small space to wrap around one another. It would have been easy to given in, easy to forget all that had happened to them and drown in the safety of each other's arms, but they both knew time was a luxury they didn't have.

Peggy pulled away first, breathless, and only able to move an inch before the back of her head found the curve of the pod. "As much as I'd love to do this, darling," she licked her lips, thinking about how very much she'd like to indulge, "There really just isn't enough room in here for me to enjoy you properly."

Steve cleared his throat and snaked his hand down the side of the pod. "I suppose that's a valid point." His fingers danced along the smooth surface until they found the switch and the pod hissed to life, slowly opening and hitting them with a blast of cool air. "Can I get a rain check?"

Steve gently lifted Peggy down from the pod and she just stood there for a moment. A smile trying very hard to find it's way into the open. "I guess so, but only if you promise to save those spangled shorts."

Steve crossed his hands over his nearly exposed crotch as a blush bloomed on his cheeks. "Well, I won't be taking them off any time soon, considering I haven't been able to find a stitch of clothing!"

Peggy took his hand and pulled him from the pod and toward the door, smiling lightly at him for the first time in what felt like ages, though it had probably just been this afternoon. "We'll find you a curtain, Scarlett O'Hara."

He laughed lightly as they made their way into the hall, doing their best to remain quiet as they stalked toward what they hoped would be the front of the castle. Instead, as they turned a corner, they both heard a very familiar voice.

"Carter!"

Peggy jumped at the resounding snap of Colonel Phillip's voice. She squeezed Steve's hand tight and pulled her robe closed even tighter with the other. "I-"

"I come out here in the middle of the night in the pouring rain to figure out why you haven't checked back in because we've got a communiqué that only Rogers is going to be able to break and you're playing house with some meathead?" Phillip's face went red as he stalked closer. "Go get some clothes on, pal." He pushed Steve square in the chest with a stern finger away from Peggy. "You've got a lot of explaining to do to me, young lady." Phillips disengaged their stunned hands and began to usher Peggy through the foyer. "Leading Steve on like that, really? I never thought that you'd pull something…"

"Colonel Phillips?" Steve cleared his throat and spoke louder than he wanted as he followed them. "I'd be very grateful if you'd stop manhandling my fiancé."

"Rogers, I'll-" Phillips turned, only a few hundred feet of lobby between them and the rainy night. His jaw dropped. "Rogers?"

"It's a long story." Steve shrugged. "But yes."

"Holy Mother of God." Phillips let go of Peggy and wiped his forehead. "What the hell have you two been doing? And do I even want to know why you're walking around in little gold undershorts?"

Peggy rejoined them and grabbed Steve's hand again. "Like Steve said, it's a long story- one we'll happily tell you once we're-"

"Once you're what?" Loki boomed from over them, looking down from the railing of the second floor, flanked by Natasha and Wanda. "I hope you weren't thinking of leaving." His voice was sweetened with a razor sharp edge that made even the Colonel stiffen. "I've just put out dinner."

"We're staying for dinner, aren't we?" Phillips whispered to Peggy.

"Hmm," she affirmed, never even taking her gaze from Loki.

The man looked down on them, judging and god-like. "Under the circumstances, formal dress is optional."

Phillips shrugged out of his trench coat and handed it to Steve. "Here. You're gonna need this."

The dining room was dark and musty, as if it hadn't ever been used. The table held a thin film of dust and the flowers in the centerpiece had died. It was like some perverted haunted house.

Loki led them quietly to the room, sitting them each in turn. He was no longer wearing his butler uniform, but a grand coat and some kind of suit underneath that flared with bright green and gold. In his hand was a scepter that glowed the same bright blue that Peggy had seen so many times already tonight. She was afraid of what that scepter might be able to do.

She sat between Steve and Phillips on one side of the table, her hands fidgeting in her lap as Steve adjusted the trench coat. Though it had been voluminous on Phillips it was nearly skin tight on him.

"I'm quite surprised to see Colonel Phillips, though not unhappy." Loki sat with a flourish at the head of the table while Natasha and Stark sat on its other side. Stark was still in the ridiculous corset and tights he'd been in before, but now there was a dazed look to his eyes, almost like he'd been drugged. "Now it really is a party."

"It's very clear that things here are not what they seemed to be," Steve started, his eyes intent on Loki. "Perhaps it's time to come clean."

"Oh, but where's the fun in that?" Loki swept his hands and the scepter out and the table before them brightened, fresh flowers they could smell and a bright roast of pork with a full course of sides appeared before their eyes. "Nothing is ever what it appears to be, _Steve,"_ he stressed the name like it stuck in his throat, "not even you."

"What do you mean?" Peggy snapped, her hands pounding flat on the table. The surface looked clean, but she could feel the grime of the dust beneath her fingers.

Wanda interrupted them with a squeaky cart, pulling it into the room. They sat in silence until she stopped at Loki's side, standing there with a faint shimmer of blue in her eyes, just like Natasha who sat and stared straight ahead.

Loki stood, running his hand over the cream cloth that covered the cart. "Mr. Rogers, everyone is here tonight for a purpose. Some are here without their consent, like your friend Mr. Stark there. Some are here because I'm the lesser of two evils, which I find absolutely hilarious, I might add." He smiled disturbingly at Natasha and Wanda, but neither one of them reacted. And you, of course, are here because it has been, and always will be, your destiny."

"You wanna get this show on the road, cupcake?" Phillips asked. Peggy was startled, but not surprised, at his choice of words. "It's all well and good to give us a good villain's soliloquy. Quite frankly I wouldn't be all that surprised if you broke into song and dance right now, but I promised my wife I'd be home before tomorrow, so…" Phillips circled his right hand repeatedly, signaling for Loki to get on with things, but Peggy caught the sight of the Colonel using the cover of his words to unholster and cock his sidearm next to him.

Loki bowed deep and sarcastically, a tight curl in his lip. "Oh, I am so very sorry to keep you." Loki pulled the cream cloth away from the cart, reveling a bright circle of red, white, and blue with a brilliant white star in the middle. In one swift movement he lifted the shield and flung it at Steve, who caught it with an ease that surprised even him. "Captain America is the man you were meant to be. We don't know what went wrong here, why Erskine's formula was never used, but if you never become that man, this universe collapses, causing the collapse of every universe across time."

"You're insane," Peggy whispered, her eyes darting back and forth between Loki and Steve. Steve was holding the shield up, amazed in a way that told her something about that shield sparked a recognition in him, just as it had in her.

"Perhaps," Loki laughed, sliding the cart away, "but you will admit that you both stayed and participated in this evening with very little persuasion. That should tell you something."

Phillips looked at his top two agents with a hard stare. "Well, he's not wrong about that."

"Natasha…" Loki's voice floated through the room, even though he had disappeared though the swinging door to the room next to them.

She blinked as her eyes cleared, a deep breath all she needed to steel herself. "The science is hard to understand, but what it comes down to is that the reality I come from, the time I come from, was attacked by a being with immense power. We defeated him, but he realized that the only reason we defeated him was our version of you." She pointed at Steve. "In our world you became Captain America while the war was still going on, and there was… a lot after that."

"Keep it to the highlights," Steve prompted, lowering the shield to his side.

"The being went back in time, as unbelievable as that sounds, and tried to stop you from taking Erskine's formula." She sighed. "When it didn't work in one reality, he shifted realities until he found this one. We don't know what he did, but it stopped you from ever fulfilling your destiny."

Peggy shook her head, "You can't expect us to believe this!"

"I don't." Natasha stood and rounded the table, crouching at Steve's side. "We don't have a lot of time, and we don't know what Loki's got up his sleeve. Now that you've been transformed, everything should be back on track."

Loki strode in, pulling Natasha from Steve's side with one hand, her eyes flashing blue once again. He waved the scepter and Peggy felt time stop. She couldn't move a muscle, could barely even think, but she could hear Loki laughing. "Oh, Natasha, I've always got something up my sleeve."

"Does anyone want to catch me up with what's going on here?" Phillips was the first one to talk, but they were all still unable to move. They were seated around the laboratory, still in their dinner chairs, Phillips' gun and Steve's shield tantalizingly just out of reach. Stark was the only one moving, robotically walking around the room and flipping switches.

"It's quite easy, my dear Colonel Phillips," Loki stepped into the room, wearing only his pants and carrying the scepter, "Without Captain Rogers in this reality, the rest of them collapse. Sounds improbable, but it is true. That beast interrupted the normal flow of time and space, and this reality has become the lynch pin that somehow holds them all together."

His bare feet padded quietly across the floor, his hand running over Howard's shoulders as the man attended to dials as if none of them were even there. He pointed the scepter at Wanda and Natasha, encasing them in a bright blue cocoon of light. "These ladies were stuck making a deal with the devil. Their precious Avengers, something you'll find out about soon enough, I'm sure, were all gone in this future without you."

He rounded Steve, running a finger over his shoulders, "Something about you has become integral for the success of the universe. All of the universes, apparently." Loki laughed. "I'm akin to a god, and you, a measly 90 pound human, well..." Loki swallowed as he started at Steve full of spite and hatred, tossing the scepter into the air. It hovered, surrounding the room in a bright blue hue with a low hum as Natasha and Wanda disappeared.

"What have you done to them?" Peggy shouted, shaking even though she couldn't move a muscle on her own. Her heart was pounding in her chest.

Loki sighed, crouching before her. "They've gone back to their reality. And soon, everyone else will be back where they belong. Including me."

Loki strode away, waving his hand and forcing all of their mouths closed with magic they didn't understand. "I think that's enough. Time for the floor show."

Loki stepped into the Pod at the center of the room as the scepter above him sent bolts of energy to the consoles around them, feeding into the wires and ports of the pod as the doors closed.

The only one that was able to move, and just barely, was Steve. He was able to get a small shimmy out of the chair, just enough to get it inching across the floor as the scepter continued to feed the dials around them. Howard continued to slowly turn knobs and check numbers, looking very much dazed and uninterested in what he was doing. It was causing him to move slower, much slower than the manic movements he'd performed before when Steve had been in the pod, and it gave Steve the chance to make it all the way to where the shield and gun were perched on the edge of a console.

Peggy and Phillips watched, fear, rage, and frustration in their eyes as Steve fought to get his hand free of whatever magic was holding them. How he was doing it Peggy couldn't say. She couldn't even conceive of a magic that could be overcome with strength. Up until today she would have said she didn't believe in magic at all. And yet, she was watching Steve struggle against invisible bonds, unable to move or talk herself.

With immense effort, Steve's hand moved past the edge of the chair, just a slight enough extension of his elbow that he could reach the console. He grabbed the metallic ledge, holding on and taking a deep breath. He looked at the shield, at the gun, both so neatly laid out for him.

'It's a test,' he thought idly. "It's a test," he groaned out between closed lips and teeth as he called up all the power he felt within him, hoping he'd made the right choice.

His hand slipped around the handle of the gun, he aimed, and shot.

A cry echoed out in the laboratory, " _Mother fucker!"_ Howard screamed as his leg buckled, the graze on his thigh starting to trickle blood down his stocking. "Who the hell-" He turned, his eyes as clear as day. In less than a second the man that the trio had known so well from their days at the SSR was back. "What the hell is going on?"

Howard looked through the entire room, expletives stringing from his lips as he tried to understand what was happening. He dashed across to the pod, hitting a string of numbers on a keypad before pressing on to the next console, his ankles weak and wobbly in the platform heels.

All around them the hum of electricity began to flicker in and out, the blue interrupted with bursts or great white lightning.

Howard tripped over his heels and rolled to the floor, scrambling back up and limping past the still immovable trio to an electrical panel built into the wall. He flipped a large flat switch over and over, but nothing seemed to change. "No, no… no! It's a shut off, you're supposed to shut off!"

He flipped the switch once more, but this time the room was bathed in darkness. The hum continued, low and menacing, but not nearly the din it had been before. A bright flash of light illuminated the room for a moment, and Peggy could have sworn she saw a tall, broad, blonde man in the door, before they were plunged into blackness.

The darkness was endless, and there was a low sound of something flying in the room, not a bird or animal, but something hard and heavy that had been thrown. It collided in the dark with something metal and light, and the sounds of both disappeared as the pod opened with a heavy hiss. The scepter began to glow a dim blue, illuminating the man in the doorway as he held it high.

Peggy took a deep breath, her body nearly collapsing in the chair her bonds were relaxed, but not released.

"Brother, you have a lot to answer for!" The low voice rang out menacingly in the darkness. With the pod open Peggy couldn't see the doorway anymore.

"I got the job done, didn't I?" Loki's voice was lighthearted, not nearly as serious as she'd expect it to be considering the man she'd seen in the doorway.

"And this? All the theatrics?" Loki's brother demanded.

Loki had the gall to laugh. "Well, a test was in order. He did pass, by the way." A bolt of lightning crashed just outside, shaking the ground beneath them. "Fine," there was resentment in his tone, deep-seated anger. "I was just having some fun."

The rustling of fabric signaled the one had grabbed the other, but Peggy still couldn't see in the dark or past the pod. "Well, it is over. We've meddled enough."

The room began to quake, but amidst the ruckus Peggy could hear Loki's voice free and clear, "I'm going home."

Lightning rang out, flashing bright white and blinding her. She felt the ground quake and the sound of the universe rattle in her ears. It lasted for seconds or eternity, Peggy couldn't tell which. Hot air blasted over her skin followed by the cold splash of rain and the feeling of the hard ground as her chair tipped. She caught herself, but just barely, her muscles weak after fighting against being incapacitated for so long.

She was quivering when it was over, the quiet of the night almost too quiet against the ringing in her head. The floor was gone, she was lying in dirt where her chair had toppled, and the evening's pelting rain had faded to a soft mist that was slowly raising goose bumps on her arms and legs.

"Steve?" She mumbled slowly, the word coming out as if she hadn't talked in days.

"Here," she heard from her left, his still strong arm reaching out to her in the corner of her vision. She rolled and grabbed his hand, sliding through the muddy ground to his side. He wrapped himself around her, holding tight and taking deep breaths. "What happened?"

"Where the hell did the house go?" Howard marveled. Peggy looked up for the first time and noticed that they were outside, but still surrounded by Howard's machines and that damned pod, as if the entire house had melted away around them.

Phillips was only a few feet away sitting up and looking straight at Howard. "What the hell are you wearing, son?"

It was as if Howard had never even looked at himself before. "What the-?" He looked up between the Colonel and the couple. "Which one of you did this?"

Steve's eyebrows shot up in surprise, loosening his hold on Peggy, but still trying to wrap her into the trench coat he wore for warmth. "Which one of us? Howard, what's the last thing you remember?"

Howard struggled to take the glittered platforms off. "I was leaving the SSR, had everything boxed up, and then I meet this guy in the parking lot, said to follow him, he had something he wanted me to look at."

Colonel Phillips stood, looming over the man. "So you followed him? What kind of idiot genius are you?"

Howard rubbed his ankle and looked up at Phillips. "Well, I didn't want to follow him- I don't think I did, really, but that's the last thing I remember."

Steve stood, pulling Peggy up with him. "Howard, that was five months ago."

"Five- No." He shook his head, taking Colonel' Phillips proffered hand to help him stand. He winced as he tried to stand up straight, his thighs and ankles protesting to being flatfooted. "Nah, I mean, it couldn't have been."

"Looks to me like you've been wearing that get-up for five months, son," Phillips replied as he carefully picked his way through the rubble, reaching a hand out behind him to help Peggy over a fallen tree. "Something you want to tell us?"

The laughter of the party was light, even forced, as they slowly picked their way back to the road where the outline of two Army Jeeps could be seen. Just as they reached the winding path, Steve froze. "Wait right here, I'll be right back."

Peggy called after him, but didn't move from the path. He scanned the distance for the hint of a reflection he'd seen, and trotted across the piles of earth, the tied belt of the trench coat barely holding it together. He reached down, wiping the mud away from the red, white, and blue surface that he'd nearly forgotten about. He picked the shield up, holding it and then tossing it into he air, catching it swiftly in his hand. Something about it felt familiar, far more right than it should have considering it had been given to him by some kind of maniac. But there was something inside him that told him this was right- that the shield, the moniker of Captain America, was in his future. Perhaps the universe wasn't going to collapse around them, but perhaps, just as his mother had always told him, he was meant for more than just a desk job.

A small smile began to bloom on his face as he took a deep breath, deeper than he'd ever been able to do back when he still suffered from Asthma, and wiped at the shield's dirty surface once more.

His reverie was interrupted by Howard's outraged cries. "Which one of you freaking shot me?"

Perhaps there was some work to be done before all of that, though. He turned, running back to the group. "Howard, I can explain…"


End file.
